Math Scales
The short version of this post is—parents, particularly of daughters, read this 2018 New York Times Opinion piece. You will thank me. End of post.
Now for the long version.
I think Phase 1 of getting involved and supplementing our children’s education, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, is to shore up fundamentals.
When it comes to math, shoring up the fundamentals is making sure that our kids have attained math fluency. Which begs the question: what is fluency when it comes to math?
Fluency, as I am thinking of it, means that all of the basic math operations have essentially become automatic.
In the same way that, being fluent in English, you aren’t taking time to work out the meaning of words in your head, math fluency means that when you see 8 x 7 =, you automatically know the answer, with 42 instantly popping into your mind
(Just testing you.)
While your kids may be testing as on track for proficiency in their math learning, this is not necessarily the same as having fluency, the difference being that they have time during their assessments to take the extra seconds to work out the answers.
Over time, though, failure to become math fluent, to get all of the basics down cold, can become an increasing burden the more complex math becomes.
When many of us were kids, schools were not at all shy about putting us to work developing fluency. You may remember racing through timed worksheets with a hundred or so similar problems, a practice that may have happened over and over and over.
Barbara Oakley, who is a professor of engineering and the author of a book on learning, makes a strong case, in the Times piece referenced above, that to advance in math, kids need to be practicing the fundamentals extensively.
She compares this practice to a music student working on scales. And like practicing music, developing math fluency isn’t something that is necessarily going to be fun; but it is important.
At some point, many schools seemed to lose their stomach for going old school and making sure kids were getting in the reps, and then the pandemic came, which made all learning challenging, and further imperiling our children’s progress toward math fluency.
Both educators and EdTech companies, though, are now waking up to the importance of not just teaching math but also working on fluency. (I saw this firsthand at an EdTech company that I recently was working at.)
Oakley’s opinion piece is valuable for parents of boys and girls. She starts by noting that math is the foundational language for science, technology, and engineering—three fields of study associated with the greatest growth of high paying jobs that parents may aspire their kids to enter.
But she does focus the piece on girls, as she considers it especially imperative that we parents of girls do what is necessary to ensure that they practice their math scales early on so that they will be less likely to suffer the issues of confidence that seem to derails so many girls from advancing in math and STEM-related activities later on.
What to do?
The good news is that this is all easy to address. Based on efforts in our home, it is clear to me that fluency rapidly improves, but it does take doing the work.
My current approach is to simply print worksheets. There are lots of options for printing free worksheets on the web, including math dad’s worksheets.
I am printing everything from addition on up to converting fractions and in between. If my kids are in the mood, we will make a small wager, and I will give them a head start and we then race, with speed being key to automaticity.
Based on my experience, I think you will sense that, despite occasional protests, your kids are relieved to be working on their fluency—the reality being that they are conscious of the issues they are having.
As time goes on, you can keep the completed worksheets and add them to a three-ring binder to add some sense of accomplishment as the binder fills up.
There are plenty of other options, including going back to flashcards, buying math workbooks, or selecting from many of the apps that are available.
I would love to hear in the comments section if you have had great experience with a technology-enabled approach.
My own bias at the moment is that pencil, paper, and the ticking clock is the way to go, until proven otherwise.
Resources and References:
Website for worksheets: math dad worksheet website